Missing the Bigger Picture

From the Daily Mail

Now Swedish supergroup Abba have revealed they had good reason to wear such garish stage costumes – because it saved a little money, money, money on their tax bill.
The band, whose spangly flares, catsuits and platform heels were considered naff even in the 1970s, exploited a Swedish law which meant clothes were tax deductible if their owners could prove they were not used for daily wear.

Two odd things about this story

1) I'm pretty sure that a performer wearing a lounge suit could claim it as a business expense anywhere, as long as they only used it as stage wear.

2) At the time, Abba chose to stay in Sweden paying 70-85% tax on their very high earnings rather than clearing off to live in Las Vegas or Monaco to save lots of Money, Money, Money.

Mamma Mia!

Her Indoors and I went to see this musical this afternoon, and I must confess to having thoroughly enjoyed nearly every minute of it (it knocks spots off the film) except for the bit at the end where they keep doing curtain calls, coming back onstage and doing another song, final round of applause, then they come back onstage and do another bow and so on ad nauseam, this ritual did drag on rather.

Real life musicians* killed in bizarre gardening accidents (Part 2)

From The Metro:

A founder member of the 1970s band ELO was killed instantly when a giant bale of hay rolled out of a field and crushed his van. Mike Edwards, 62, was driving beside a steeply sloping field when the 320kg (50st) bale careered down and burst through a hedge... Steve Walker, of Devon and Cornwall police, said: ‘This was a tragic accident. We have used photographs and YouTube footage to identify him but we now need help contacting his family for formal identification."

See also the drummer out of ABBA.

* No doubt the purists will argue that it only counts if a drummer dies in a bizarre gardening accident.

This is Spinal Tap!

Life copies art.